Can we teach kids peace? The most recent years have been violent close to home. Dr. Maria Montessori always emphasized children as being an integral part of the peace process. It seems that the present time is calling for a focus on that teaching again.

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” ~ Dr. Montessori

Dr. Montessori's peace “curriculum” drew me in immediately. The approach makes sense. There are three levels of experiencing peace: world peace, community peace, and inner peace. How beautiful to recognize the levels of peace within one's life? World peace is a big topic full of politics and inequality. Community (or in our children's case classroom) peace celebrates the ability to resolve conflict, while inner peace pays attention to the needs within one's self whatever those needs may be.

In the United States this month we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..The topics of peace, justice, and equality are opportunities for us adults to begin dialogues with our children, the leaders of tomorrow. Dr. Montessori's ideas for the classroom are as relevant today as they ever were for children and for teachers. Below are a few ideas to get you started on bringing peace into your home or classroom.

11 Ways to Teach Kids Peace

Plant life – Caring and understanding plants is a big step toward compassion and kindness.

Practice gratitude – Ask questions to get children thinking about their ideas around gratitude.

Reduce waste – A healthy environment is a powerful message to keeping the peace with Mother Earth. Understanding how to care for the environment and its needs depending on the habitat carves the way for peace making.

Silence game – A classic Montessori work for the early childhood classroom. See this post on the Silence Activity for more details!.

Prepare yourself – Most of us adults forget to evaluate ourselves before diving into influencing the lives of young children. Taking a spiritual journey is a requirement of Montessori training. Preparing yourself for the classroom in general is critical. I wrote about preparing ourselves for the classroom in this post a while ago.

Teach kids courage – Cultivating peace or pursuing peace is a big job that requires loads of courage. I researched the BEST books to teach children about courage, not matter your definition of courage. One of my most popular posts over the last two years, I think you will enjoy the ideas.

Books to teach kids peace – Along the same vein as courage, teaching kids about peace can be a paralyzing start. What a big topic? Where do we begin? That is precisely why I came up with this list of books to teach kids about peace.

Yoga cards – Inner peace is often forgotten. How can we teach our children to self-regulate in a way that honors their emotions as strong as they may be? Integration meditation into the daily routine is a huge step in the right direction. The ABC Yoga Cards for Kids are a phenomenal way to ignite a child's desire to want meditation to be a daily part of his life.

Quiet corner – No matter who we are, a quiet corner is a must. Even the most extroverted person needs a space where she can slow down her engine. Creating a go to quiet corner is key in a child's environment whether at home or in the classroom. All it takes is a few pillows or a comfy chair, a window or natural light, maybe a book, maybe a plant, maybe a blanket, maybe headphones with easy listening music…the possibilities for a quiet corner are seemingly endless.

Outdoor quiet space – Just as important as the indoor space for calm is an outdoor space. Have each child identify a sitting spot where he or she can go to simply be. We have a family sitting spot in our yard but also have designated individual sitting spots around our outdoor space. Kids take ownership, name the space, and decorate the space as they see fit. Truly lovely!

Mindfulness is something I work on every single day. Being present doesn't come naturally for me. My mind is constantly on ten things at once and usually not the thing I'm currently doing. This post includes mindfulness exercises for kids that I first experienced during my Montessori training at MEIPN. My instructor used this exercise as an example in brain development and the idea of using real concrete objects in early learning environments. The exercise made quite an impact.

I have written a lot about teaching mindfulness to kids. Montessori's peace curriculum brings this idea into the classroom – the idea of inner stillness. The Silence Work is a perfect example of one way Dr. Montessori encouraged this learning with children.

Mindfulness Exercises

She presented us with real oranges and asked us to describe these oranges. What words would you use? Juicy, smooth, cool, bumpy, stringy, sour, sweet, orange, etc. We came up with a long list of adjectives.Then she took the REAL orange away. She replaced it with a picture of a real orange. She then walked up to the white board and questioned our descriptors. Can we say this picture of an orange is “bumpy”? Every adjective that could not be used to describe the orange was erased from the board. As she continued replacing the item in our hands from picture, to fake play kitchen orange to cartoon/clip art picture of an orange, and so on, we discovered few descriptors remained in describing our initial beautiful orange.

Get it?

“No problem was ever created in the same consciousness
that was used to create it.” ~ Albert Einstein

Mindfulness Exercises for Kids

Invite the child to the table, maybe at snack or meal time.

Hand an orange to the child

Ask the child to examine a food (we used an apple recently) using his eyes, ears, hands, nose, and mouth.

Have you ever read a wonderful book called Nurturing the Spirit? One of my all time favorite go to resources when I need to recenter and to refresh my home and classroom. I thought I'd share a few ideas on how to integrate Montessori peace into your home using this book as my inspiration.

Integrate Montessori Peace Education Simply & Easily

Natural Light
A space that allows for natural light is an easy way to incorporate Montessori peace. Beyond that idea, you can celebrate light by creating a rainbow with contact paper on your window. This suncatcher from No Time for Flashcards is sweet and gets to the point. You can also create “color windows” with sheets of cellophane to look at the world in a different light.

Real Plants
Incorporating plants into your Montessori peace environment allows a child to experience nature and to care for an object. The child's spirit will be nourished simply by watching a seed sprout, then caring for the plant will happen naturally.

Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is a big piece of Montessori peace education. One way that we incorporate gratitude into our home is at dinner. We take a moment to go around the table and talk about what we were most grateful for that day.. Sometimes I phrase it simply as “What was your favorite part of the day?” Parents and teachers included!

Clear receptacle – One of my instructors has her students place their trash in a clear bag or receptacle to connect the children to the impact trash makes on our earth. Nothing speaks more clearly than a visual representation of the amount of trash collected by each of us every day and the impact we can make if we each reduce the habit.

Reusable Napkins is an easy way for all of us to reduce waste.

Decomposition
Another interesting and powerful way to ground children in environmental responsibility is by using a similar clear receptacle but allowing time for decomposition to take place.

Playing the ‘I Have a Dream‘ speech is a perfect introduction to the significance of Martin Luther King Jr.. Last year my sons were 3.5 and 2 years old. My older son had a few questions but we didn't go very much in depth on the topic of equality, peace and diversity. Anti-bias is a big topic. I want to make sure we approach the ideas thoughtfully and respectfully. So our activities last year planted seeds for later conversations about equality, peace and diversity. With that thinking, I came up with this plan for a day with kids including several Martin Luther King Jr. Activities.

Martin Luther King Jr. Activities

Create the Environment

My plan this year is to probe a bit deeper. We will listen to MLK's famous speech. I will ask my children how the words made their bodies feel to tap their ongoing emotional development. Then I will show a picture of MLK to my boys and ask them to describe who they see. I want to get a benchmark. Do they see the differences, understand the impacts (both positive and negative) of these differences? I will give them a bit if background on equal rights as they guide me to do so.

Plan an Activity

My plan is to prepare an art project, like this Fingerprint Dove, to do together. Hopefully, then, the conversation will occur more naturally. Additionally, one of my favorite books on this topic is called All the Colors of the Earth (Mulberry Books) by Sheila Hamanaka. I highly recommend picking up this book. Your local library should have a copy but it is definitely worth owning. While we work on the dove and read the book I suspect my boys will have questions.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Activities

I love this diversity activity we did for Earth Day to celebrate all the unique people and places around the world.

Children are very capable of understanding big topics and of working with biases in a positive and productive way. Celebrations like Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a perfect opportunity to open to the door to learning already ripe for igniting in a child.

One of the most beautiful practical life activities in a Montessori Early Childhood classroom is the Montessori Silence Game. To watch squirmy preschoolers find their way to calm in their minds and their bodies is simply amazing to observe in the classroom or home for that matter.

At home my sons are in the habit of Making Silence when they get a little crazy and at bedtime as a way to relax. My 4-year-old leads Silence. It is breathtaking.

Montessori Silence Game Practical Life

Before I go into the silence game lesson, here are a few reading recommendations. I HIGHLY recommend Montessori Services & Parent Child Press for incorporating peace and silence into your classroom and homes. The book I love for my own learning is Nurturing the Spirits by Aline Wolf. The book is filled with wisdom and wonderful concrete and tangible ideas for creating a peaceful space in your Montessori environment. For my children, we adore all of Parent Child Press' Early Readers and are particularly fond of When I Make Silence with simple and inviting illustrations and wording that draws children into the concept.